The
Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran was the invasion of the Imperial State of Iran by
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
, and
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
armed forces, codenamed
Operation Countenance, from August 25, 1941 to September 17, 1941. The purpose of the invasion was to secure Persian
oil fieldAn oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
s and ensure supply lines (see
Persian CorridorThe Persian Corridor is the name for a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II.-Background:...
) for the Soviets fighting against
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
on the
Eastern FrontThe Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of war between the European Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland , and the Soviet Union which encompassed central and eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9...
.
Background
Following
Germany's invasion of RussiaOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
in June 1941, the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
became
AlliesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
. Although still a neutral nation, Reza Shah Pahlavi had brought Persia closer to
GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
. This concerned the British who feared that the Abadan Oil Refinery, owned by the
Anglo-Persian Oil CompanyThe Anglo-Persian Oil Company was founded in 1908 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. It was the first company using the oil reserves of the Middle East...
, might fall into German hands — the refinery produced eight million tons of oil in 1940 and was thus a crucial part of the
AlliedThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
war effort. For the Soviets, Persia was a country of extreme strategic importance. The German Army (
Wehrmacht Heer) was steadily advancing through the Soviet Union and the Persian Corridor was one of the few ways for the Allies to get desperately needed
Lend-LeaseLend-Lease was the name of the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material between 1941 and 1945 in return for, in the case of Britain, military bases in Newfoundland,...
supplies to the Soviets from the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
As increasing
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
attacks, as well the ice conditions, made convoys to
ArkhangelskArkhangelsk , formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina river near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. City districts spread for over along the banks of the...
extremely dangerous, the
Trans-Iranian RailwayThe Trans-Iranian Railway was a major railway building project started in 1927 and finished in 1939, under the direction of the Persian monarch, Reza Shah, to construct a basic network of railways joining the capital Tehran to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. The Trans-Iranian Railway was...
seemed a very attractive route to transport supplies up from the
Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
. The two Allied nations applied pressure on Persia and the Shah but this led only to increased tensions and pro-German rallies in the capital of
TehranTehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Tochal mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia...
. Reza Shah refused the Allies' requests to expel German nationals residing in Persia, and denied the use of the railway to the Allies; this, along with the above strategic concerns, prompted Britain and the Soviet Union to launch an invasion of Persia on August 25, 1941.
Invasion
The invasion was rapid and conducted with ease. From the south the British Iraq Command (also known as
IraqforceIraqforce was a British and Commonwealth formation that came together in the Kingdom of Iraq. The formation fought in the Middle East during World War II....
), renamed six days later to Persia and Iraq Command (
PaiforceIraqforce was a British and Commonwealth formation that came together in the Kingdom of Iraq. The formation fought in the Middle East during World War II....
), under the command of Lieutenant General
Edward QuinanGeneral Sir Edward Pellew Quinan KCB, KCIE, DSO, OBE was a British army commander during World War II. During 1941, Quinan commanded the British and Indian Army forces in the Anglo-Iraqi War, the Syria-Lebanon campaign and the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.-Early years and career in Indian...
, advanced. Paiforce was made up of the 8th and 10th Indian Infantry Divisions, 2nd Indian Armoured Brigade, 4th British Cavalry Brigade (later renamed 9th Armoured Brigade) and the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade. The Soviets came from the north with their 44th, 47th and 53rd Armies of the
Transcaucasian FrontTranscaucasian Front or Transcaucasus Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. This sense of the term is not identical with the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front may operate within designated...
under General Kozlov. Air force and naval units also participated in the battle. The Iranian Army mobilised nine infantry divisions. Reza Shah appealed to US President
Franklin RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
under the
Atlantic CharterThe Atlantic Charter was the blueprint for the world after World War II, and is the foundation for many of the international treaties and organizations that currently shape the world...
:
- "…on the basis of the declarations which Your Excellency has made several times regarding the necessity of defending principles of international justice and the right of peoples to liberty. I beg Your Excellency to take efficacious and urgent humanitarian steps to put an end to these acts of aggression. This incident brings into war a neutral and pacific country which has had no other care than the safeguarding of tranquillity and the reform of the country." — a letter of August 25
However, this plea failed to prompt a response from the US President to prevent the invasion of Iran, as Roosevelt's response shows:
- "Viewing the question in its entirety involves not only the vital questions to which Your Imperial Majesty refers, but other basic considerations arising from Hitler's ambition of world conquest. It is certain that movements of conquest by Germany will continue and will extend beyond Europe to Asia, Africa, and even to the Americas, unless they are stopped by military force. It is equally certain that those countries which desire to maintain their independence must engage in a great common effort if they are not to be engulfed one by one as has already happened to a large number of countries in Europe. In recognition of these truths, the Government and people of the United States of America, as is well known, are not only building up the defenses of this country with all possible speed, but they have also entered upon a very extensive program of material assistance to those countries which are actively engaged in resisting German ambition for world domination."
Roosevelt also reassured the Shah by noting
"the statements to the Iranian Government by the British and Soviet Governments that they have no designs on the independence or territorial integrity of Iran". However, the Soviets would later back separatist states in the north, while the US and UK would later support the overthrow of the popular and democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister
Mohammed MossadeghMohammad Mosaddeq was the Prime Minister of Iranfrom 1951 to 1953 when he was removed from power by a coup d'état....
during the
Abadan CrisisThe Abadan Crisis occurred from 1951 to 1954, after Iran nationalised the Iranian assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and expelled Western companies from oil refineries in the city of Abadan .-Prelude:...
in 1953.
The campaign began on August 25 with a dawn attack by the British sloop HMS
Shoreham on the harbour at Abadan. The Iranian sloop
Palang was quickly sunk, and remaining ships were destroyed or captured. There had been no time to prepare resistance. The
petroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
installations at Abadan were captured by two battalions from 8th Indian Division's 24th Indian Brigade making an amphibious crossing of the Shatt al-Arab from
BasraAl-Baṣrah is the capital of Basra Province, and had an estimated population of 3,800,200 as of 2009. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it is incapable of deep water access, which is handled at the the port of Umm Qasr...
. A small force was also landed at Bandar-e-Shahpur from the armed merchant cruiser
HMAS KanimblaHMAS Kanimbla was a passenger ship converted for use as an armed merchant cruiser and landing ship infantry during World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, the was commissioned in the Royal Navy, then the Royal Australian Navy.-Construction:...
to secure the port and petroleum terminal there. The
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
attacked airbases and communications. The 8th Indian Division (18th Brigade plus 25th Brigade under command from 10th Indian Division) advanced from
BasraAl-Baṣrah is the capital of Basra Province, and had an estimated population of 3,800,200 as of 2009. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it is incapable of deep water access, which is handled at the the port of Umm Qasr...
towards Qasr Shiekh (which was taken on August 25) and by August 28 had reached
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
when the Shah ordered hostilities to cease. Further north, 8 battalions of British and Indian troops under Major-General
William SlimField Marshal William Joseph "Bill" Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, KStJ was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia. He fought in both the First World War and the Second World War and was wounded in action three times...
advanced from
KhanaqinKhanaqin Kurdish خانه قين,Xaneqîn is a city in eastern Iraq, south of Kurdish regions. It is located at 34.3°N, 45.4°E in the Diyala Governorate, near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River.Khanaqin is the administrative capital of the Khanaqin District...
(100 miles north east of
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
and 300 miles from Basra) into the Naft-i-Shah oilfield and on towards the Pai Tak Pass, leading towards
KermanshahKermanshah , is the capital city of Kermanshah Province, located 525 km from Tehran in the western part of Iran and about 120 km from the border of Iraq. Kermanshah has a continental climate. The estimated population of the city is 822,921 and the majority of the inhabitants speak...
and Hamadan. The Pai Tak position was taken on August 27 after the defenders had withdrawn in the night and the planned assault on Kermanshah on August 29 was aborted when the defenders called a truce to negotiate surrender terms.
The Soviets invaded from the north and advanced toward
MakuMaku is a town in the northwestern part of the West Azerbaijan province of Iran. It is situated 22 km from the Turkish border in a mountain gorge at an altitude of 1634 metres...
, which had been softened up by bombing raids. There were also Soviet landings at
Bandar-e PahlaviBandar-e Anzali , known as Bandar-e Pahlavi before the Iranian Revolution, is a harbour town on the Caspian Sea, in the Iranian province of Gilan, close to Rasht. Bandar-e Anzali has a population of approximately 150,000....
, on the
CaspianThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres...
coast. In one incident, Soviet ships suffered from "
friendly fireFriendly fire is an expression meaning fire from one's own side or allied forces, as opposed to fire coming from enemy forces, and was a tactic originally adopted by the United States military....
".
In naval actions, two Iranian warships were sunk and four crippled by the Royal Navy. Six Persian fighters were shot down. Approximately 800 Iranian soldiers, sailors, airmen were killed, including
Admiral BayandorRear admiral Gholamali Bayandor , was the first Commander of Imperial Iranian Navy and was killed during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran . He was born in Tehran to ancestors from Bijar, Kurdistan....
. Approximately 200 civilians died in Russian bombing raids in Gilan. British and Indian casualties were 22 killed and 42 wounded.
Without any military allies able to come to its assistance, Iranian resistance was rapidly overwhelmed and neutralised by Soviet and British tanks and infantry. The British and Soviet forces met at
SennaSanandaj or Senna is the capital of the Iranian province of Kurdistan.At the latest population census, which was carried out on 25 October 2006, it had a population of 316,862. The city of Sanandaj is the capital of the province, and lies at a distance of 512 km from Tehran, 1,480 m...
(100 miles west of Hamadan) and Kazvin (100 miles west of
TehranTehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Tochal mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia...
and 200 miles north east of Hamadan) on August 30 and 31 respectively. Iran was defeated, the oilfields taken and the valuable
Trans-Iranian RailwayThe Trans-Iranian Railway was a major railway building project started in 1927 and finished in 1939, under the direction of the Persian monarch, Reza Shah, to construct a basic network of railways joining the capital Tehran to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. The Trans-Iranian Railway was...
was in Allied hands. Because of lack of transport the British decided not to establish any forces beyond Hamadan and Ahvaz. In the meantime, the new Persian Prime Minister, Fourughi, agreed that the German Minister and his staff should leave Tehran, the German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian legations be closed and all remaining German nationals be handed over to the British and Soviet authorities. The failure to meet the last of these conditions led to British and Soviet troops entering Tehran on September 17, the day after Reza Shah had been arrested and sent into exile in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
, leaving his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to replace him on the throne. The Soviet and British forces withdrew from Tehran on October 17, after the Germans had been dealt with although Iran was effectively divided between Britain and the Soviet Union for the duration of the war.
Events during occupation
With this crucial supply route now open to the Soviet Union, the Persian Corridor would provide a massive flow of supplies (over 5 million tons of war
materielMateriel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....
) to the Soviets primarily, but also the British in the Middle East. The new Shah signed a Treaty of Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union in January 1942, under which Iran provided nonmilitary assistance to the Allied war effort. Article Five of this treaty, although not entirely trusted by the Iranian leader, committed the Allies to leaving Iran "not more than six months after the cessation of hostilities". In September 1943, Iran declared war on Germany, thus qualifying for membership in the
United NationsThe Declaration by United Nations was a World War II document agreed to on January 1 1942 during the Arcadia Conference by 26 governments: the Allied "Big Four" , nine American allies in Central America and the Caribbean, the four British Dominions, British India, and eight Allied...
. At the
Tehran ConferenceThe Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference among the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
in November of that year, US President
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, British Prime Minister
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
, and General Secretary
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
reaffirmed their commitment to Iran's independence and territorial integrity and displayed a willingness to extend economic assistance to Iran.
Withdrawal
During the three years of occupation, Stalin had expanded Soviet political influence in Azerbaijan and the Kurdish area in northwestern Iran. On December 12, 1945, after weeks of violent clashes a Soviet-backed separatist People's Republic of Azerbaijan was founded. The Kurdish People's Republic was also established in late 1945. Iranian government troops sent to reestablish control were blocked by Soviet Red Army units. When the deadline for withdrawal arrived on March 2, 1946, six months after the end of World War II hostilities, the British began to withdraw, but Moscow balked, "citing threats to Soviet security."
Soviet troops did not withdraw from Iran proper until May, 1946 after receiving a promise of
petroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
concessions. The Soviet republics in the north were soon overthrown and the oil concessions were revoked.
See also
- Anglo-Persian War
The Anglo-Persian War lasted between November 1, 1856 and April 4, 1857, and was fought between the United Kingdom and Persia . In the war, the British opposed an attempt by Persia to reacquire the city of Herat, which was nominally part of Afghanistan but which had been part of Persia under the...
- 1856-1857
- Russo-Persian Wars
The Russo-Persian Wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and Persia in the 18th and 19th centuries, the most important of which were:*Russo-Persian War *Russo-Persian War *Russo-Persian War...
- Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907
- Iran-Britain relations
- Iran-Russia relations
Relations between Russia and Persia , officially commenced in 1592, with the Safavids in power. Past and present contact between Russia and Iran has long been complicatedly multi-faceted; often wavering between collaboration and rivalry. The two nations have a long history of geographic, economic,...
- History of Iran
History of Iran has been intertwined to the history of a larger historical region, Greater Iran, which consists of the area from the Euphrates in the west to the Indus River and Jaxartes in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of...
- The Great Game
The Great Game is a term used for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of...
- Iraqforce
Iraqforce was a British and Commonwealth formation that came together in the Kingdom of Iraq. The formation fought in the Middle East during World War II....
- Persian Corridor
The Persian Corridor is the name for a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II.-Background:...
External links